Peaky Blinders movie will 'move the story on in a different way' (exclusive)

Watch: Peaky Blinders creator teases movie plans

With Peaky Blinders about to wrap up its TV run with its sixth and final season — starting on BBC One Sunday, 27 February — its creator is already working on the long-awaited movie spin-off.

"[The Peaky Blinders movie] is going to happen. It’s in my head. I’m starting to write it,” Steven Knight told Yahoo.

“It will move the story on in a different way but it will maintain the sensibility of the TV series.”

The film, which will see Cillian Murphy returning as gang leader Tommy Shelby, is set to shoot in Birmingham in 2023, and will be 'sort of the end of the road for Peaky Blinders as we know it'.

Season five of the show ended with a gripping cliffhanger with Tommy ready to turn a gun on himself.

While Knight, who based the show on his own ‘family legends’ said he didn’t feel emotional when writing the script for the last season of the TV series, but he did say that watching the show 'when it’s cut together, is emotional.'

Read more: 'Expect the unexpected' from the final season on Peaky Blinders

“Writing is a different process. It just happens,” Knight explained to Yahoo.

“When you see it put together then you think, ‘OK, these are characters that have been around in my head for a long time’”.

The cast knew they were filming the last season at the time of shooting and Sophie Rundle (Ada Shelby) found the experience 'quite poignant' and, because they all wanted to make the most of their time on set, 'there was a real pleasure in [filming the last season]'.

Talking to the BBC, Knight explained the milieu of the final season: "It’s the mid 1930s, fascism is on the rise, the Shelbys are more powerful than ever. But demons are coming to reclaim Tommy Shelby."

And talking about why the show would end with its sixth season he explained: "The reason is boringly practical which is that we lost a year due to the pandemic. The way these things are scheduled – it’s like turning an oil tanker around.

"We just felt, also with the loss of Helen [McCrory], that it all seemed to be pointing towards doing what I'm calling ‘the end of the beginning.’ Let’s end the beginning, then let's do the film. And then let's see where we go in terms of spin offs."

The final series of Peaky Blinders will air on BBC One from 27 February.